On May 14th–17th
2019 the jubilee 20th annual conference about the Late Iron Age in
Central Europe Kelti / The Celts / Die Kelten 2019 took place.

The event, organized with the support by SAS Institute of Archaeology, Slovak Research and Development Agency within the contract No. 14-0842, project VEGA No. 2/0001/18, Slovak Archaeological Society by SAS, and Anton Točík Foundation, have been hosted in Stará Lesná in SAS Congress centre Academia.

58 researchers on the La Tène Period from Slovakia, Czech Republic, Poland, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary, Germany, Rumania, France, and Australia participated. The scientific program of the conference was enriched by the excursion focused on the monuments of the Spiš region.

Institute of Archaeology
of the Slovak Academy of Sciences invites for the lecture by Zuzana Chovanec, Ph.D., U.S. Fulbright
Scholar – From
poppies in the field to slumberous dreams: Investigating the history of the
opium poppy in Central Europe and beyond

The opium poppy, Papaver somniferum L., represents one of the most widely used psychoactive and medicinal substances in human history. The fact that it is a significant agricultural resource, has a complex botanical history, and its small physical remains complicates the archeological investigation of its use. Building on previous research in the eastern Mediterranean, the complex relationship between the opium poppy and humans is reexamined in light of new evidence from Slovakia and Central Europe.

The
lecture will take place on February 20 2019 at 14:00 in the Institute of
Archaeology SAS, Akademická 2, Nitra, in the lecture room at the ground floor.

VirtualArch is a international project aiming to settle the current trends in presentation of unseen archaeological heritage by a modern and innovative tools, like 3D modelling, augmented or virtual reality. One of the conferences, now held in Nitra, will focus on volunteers and public and their role in the monument preservation and presentation.

The archaeology of personal identities has firmly established age, gender and status as relevant categories of investigation.

In 2016 we organized a workshop in Klement-Oberleis in Lower Austria under the topic of “Multiple femininities – multiple masculinities: the diversity of gendered identities in the Bronze and Iron Ages”. This year, as the final act of the SASPRO Project “Male Identities in La Tène Cemeteries in the Middle Danube Area”, it is time to expand the field from prehistory also to early history and our present days. Next to different “archaeological identities”, we want to ask about “Identity of archaeology”, hence the identity of archaeologists.

For almost two centuries the Cuman-Qïpchaq Tribal community enjoyed an unchallenged domination over the steppes of Western Eurasia, which became to be known as the Cuman Field (Dasht-i Qipchāq, Pole Polovetskoe, Cumania). However, this favorable situation dramatically changed in the first decades of the 13th c., when the advancing Mongol armies started a series of campaigns aimed at the subjugation of the numerous nomadic inhabitants of the Cuman Field. Motivated by their project for pan-nomadic empire and worried by the possible repercussions of the stubborn Cuman-Qïpchaq resistance among other steppe dwellers, the Chinggisids put every effort to impose their authority over these tribes.

The present lecture of Dr. Konstantin Golev, researcher from the Institute of History of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and adjoin researcher from the St. Kliment Ohridski University in Sofia, will examine the contrast models of behavior, adopted by the various Cuman-Qïpchaq groupings in the face of the inevitable Mongol menace.

The lecture will take place on February 14 2018 at 14.00 in the SAS Institute of Archaeology, Akademická 2 in Nitra.

It is a great honour to invite you to participate in our conference, which will be focused on archaeological aspects and on topics concerning ancient history and history of art and religion.

International conference organized on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the re-established Trnava University in Trnava and the 20th anniversary of the Department of Classical Archaeology with cooperation Institute of Archaeology SAS

In the name of the Institute of Archaeology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (Nitra, Slovakia) and the National Council for Culture, Arts & Letters (State of Kuwait) we would like to invite you to the conference

“Archaeology of Failaka and Kuwaiti coast – current research“

The conference will be held on 3rd to 6th October 2016 in the Institute of Archaeology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (Nitra, Slovakia).

The courtyard 26, the building with windcatch-tower, Al-Qusur excavation

Theme of conference: The archaeological research of the Failaka Island and of the Kuwaiti coast; the underwater archaeology of the north coastline of Failaka

Language of conference: English

Organizers: The Institute of Archaeology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, Nitra, Slovakia; National Council for Culture, Arts & Letters (NCCAL), State of Kuwait.

The archaeology of personal identities has firmly established age, gender and status as relevant categories of investigation. Beyond the recognition that not all women and men led identical lives, however, there has been little effort to unravel the diversity of gendered lives. Women’s lives may have differed significantly according to their reproductive status – whether they were infertile, had few or many surviving children. Craft specialists of both genders may have led lives that took them away from their communities and brought them into contact with different ways of living. Similarly, medical or ritual specialists of both genders may be integral to many societies. Further, the mechanisms by which men turned into warriors are still little understood – was being a warrior part of every man’s lifecycle, was this particular identity restricted to a certain age group or class, or were other selection mechanisms at play? Some aspects of personal identity may not be gendered at all. Was gender relevant for making pots or taking care of children?